Classic servers and access to retired mounts (and mogs)

[Coconut]

If Blizzard is going to open official Vanilla servers, I expect they will feature a lot of vanity items that are currently exceedingly rare. I'm thinking primarily of the original epic class mounts that were retired in 1.4, but a lot of other things fall into this category, from the Zul'Gurub mounts to T3 and Naxx crafted gear, and perhaps even the Amani Battle Bear if legacy servers continue on to Burning Crusade.

Since I primarily play the game to collect stuff, I can't help but wonder... what sort of effect should we see from this on the Standard servers?

I'm sure many people will want to use the Classic servers to add legacy items to their Standard collections. It makes sense in a way. Since these items will be at least temporarily, if not permanently available on Vanilla servers, their value as keepsakes for people who used to play back in the day will be greatly diminished. Right now, your only chance of seeing a Green Kodo or an Ancient Frostsaber is to encounter a veteran player lucky enough to have kept one. With Classic servers, all you need to do is log there and you will potentially see them everywhere.

That being said, I don't think the people who lobbied for Classic would like their game to be modernized with mount and transmog tabs just for the sake of collectors, and many collectors might not enjoy feeling like they "have to" play Classic intensively to get something they want to use in Standard.

So I propose two potential solutions that would make everyone happy:

1. Simply reintroduce these mounts and transmogs to the Standard game, or change the means of acquisition from BMAH to actual gameplay. They can come from current content rather the old vendor or instance. They can even have new names, in order to preserve the integrity of the originals, simply add new mounts using those models. Since horses are receiving a graphic update in BFA, kodos already received one, and other mounts may get one too in time, the extra colors are particularly desirable.

2. Add hidden achievements on Classic servers that translate into rewards on Standard. For example, leveling a char to 60 will grant you a token in Standard WoW that you can exchange for one of the original epic mounts, killing KT on a Classic realms grants you a token you can exchange for a full T3 set in Standard, etc. This is more of a middle ground solution. There is no visible intrusion on Classic realms in the form of a Collector tab, and players still need to invest somewhat in their Classic characters to get the rewards, but a bit less than it would take to actually buy the mount or collect individual items.

What do you guys think? How would you like this handled?


P.S. To edgy Vanilla lovers who think Vanilla mounts and mogs should remain exclusive to Vanilla servers, don't be hypocrites. You wanted access to retired content in a way you could enjoy, and Blizzard listened to you. There is no reason why collectors shouldn't have the same expectations - only we don't want the gameplay, just the vanity items.

[Kazuchika]

Why do people think classic and live are going to be connected in any way aside from possibly your live subscription granting you access to the classic server?

Pretty comical how you claim people who want some exclusivity are "edgy" though. 10/10 that'll surely get people to take you seriously.

[Razorice]

If you want items from vanilla to be shared with current WoW, Blizzard will make vanity items and mounts shared to Vanilla. So no, please let the past be in the past.
And no, I'm not going to be playing Vanilla servers.

[Lord Pebbleton]

The way I picture it, live and classic will be shared. In classic you cannot use the mounts you have in live, but unlocking a item that was made unobtainable in the past does grant it as a transmo option in live (with transmo being absent in classic). The same would go for mounts, pets...

I may add that I believe this way because people will need motivation to play classic and Blizzard knows this. One may argue we got spoiled with achievements but it is what it is.
Getting to level 60, for example, could unlock an achievement for the live counterpart. Same goes for clearing AQ or MC. People seldom raid as it is, I cannot imagine seeing 40 people banding together when even putting 10 in the same raid can prove hard.

[woofpup]

There was a post from Blizz a few months ago about "Pristine" servers now being called "Classic". In that post it said your toons and stuff on that server would NOT share anything with toons on other servers.

[Ozyorkbourne]

Why do people think classic and live are going to be connected in any way aside from possibly your live subscription granting you access to the classic server?

Pretty comical how you claim people who want some exclusivity are "edgy" though. 10/10 that'll surely get people to take you seriously.

Because some of them probably think it's just another server instead of a different client through the battle.net system.

"So I propose two potential solutions that would make everyone happy" - Wouldn't make me happy. I don't have any exclusive mounts or transmog. We have what we earned and that's that.

I'm not a vanilla lover, probably won't play and I think this is a terrible idea.

[Deleted]

Pretty comical how you claim people who want some exclusivity are "edgy" though. 10/10 that'll surely get people to take you seriously.

To me it just makes the OP sound like an entitled child. Those things (and many others) are gone OP. Deal with it and start afresh in a Classic server, that is the whole point of it.

If they were to transfer something between games (wich they won't) it would make 10x more sense to transfer Vanilla achievs and FoSs from live to Classic.

[Gloriandus]

It doesn't need to be handled at all.

Anyone who tilted their rose-colored glasses down for a moment could've seen arguments like this one coming from a mile away.

If people really want to play on a "Classic" server, they have to deal with all the imperfections and lack of QOL features that come with it. There should be no connection to live, no improvements, no cross-version talk. Either people play Classic for its own sake, or they should admit they just wanted the unattainable items.

[Kazuchika]

We have what we earned and that's that.

Bingo. I never got the ZG tiger despite years of farming it every 3 days. Oh well. That's life.

[Sting]

Wouldn't mind some incentives for playing classic like accountwide transmog unlocks. It's probably the main reason that I'd actually play it since Legion has kept me quite busy so far and I doubt that'll really change with BFA.

[Ozyorkbourne]

Bingo. I never got the ZG tiger despite years of farming it every 3 days. Oh well. That's life.

Yep. I was 1 achievement away from the Black Proto-Drake. The day my guild did it, I was away because of irl stuff. I'm salty about it now and probably will be if I think of it in 10 years, but that's that.

- - - Updated - - -

Wouldn't mind some incentives for playing classic like accountwide transmog unlocks. It's probably the main reason that I'd actually play it since Legion has kept me quite busy so far and I doubt that'll really change with BFA.

Why would they incentivise you to play it? The incentive is that it's vanilla. You either want to play live, classic or not at all.

[Deleted]

Bingo. I never got the ZG tiger despite years of farming it every 3 days. Oh well. That's life.

Same here. In fact, the one time it dropped (other than the one time I saw it drop during a guild raid in vanilla), I was helping a friend with my alt and I didn't roll because taking it on an alt would be a waste vs a main having it. And then they added account wide mounts.

[Kazuchika]

Wouldn't mind some incentives for playing classic like accountwide transmog unlocks. It's probably the main reason that I'd actually play it since Legion has kept me quite busy so far and I doubt that'll really change with BFA.

I highly doubt they're going to incentivize something they didn't even really want to do in the first place.

[Morgaith]

While i fully support adding back all removed content from the live game i expect the only thing getting added to vanilla to be the btag system of some kind. Most of the vanilla crowd wants the old game as it was, untampered.

I see one of 2 different "vanilla" servers going up.

1: Completely vanilla with only the btag system in place.

2: The old vanilla game but with quality of life changes like class balance, achievements, btag and possibly dungeon finder.


Either one will work for me (playing on top of the live game) but i expect them to initially go with the first one.

[Cassidin]

Because some of them probably think it's just another server instead of a different client through the battle.net system.

"So I propose two potential solutions that would make everyone happy" - Wouldn't make me happy. I don't have any exclusive mounts or transmog. We have what we earned and that's that.

I'm not a vanilla lover, probably won't play and I think this is a terrible idea.

While I think it is more likely to be a different client - I also believe they may make it so classic works on the current client. I do think it is very unlikely however.

As to discoveries on classic unlocking things on live (transmog/mounts) I can see there are two sides to this. On the one side, it would be a kick in the teeth for those who collected things that are no longer available to suddenly see everyone with these. A counter argument would be that these people need to be less of a special snowflake - I'm not commenting either way - but both arguments will be made. However the other side to this could be that Blizzard knows there are a lot of people who are very much into transmog gear and allowing classic gear to unlock transmogs on live may actually bring some people back to the game.

I will therefore not be surprised either way to be honest.

- - - Updated - - -

While i fully support adding back all removed content from the live game i expect the only thing getting added to vanilla to be the btag system of some kind. Most of the vanilla crowd wants the old game as it was, untampered.

I see one of 2 different "vanilla" servers going up.

1: Completely vanilla with only the btag system in place.

2: The old vanilla game but with quality of life changes like class balance, achievements, btag and possibly dungeon finder.


Either one will work for me (playing on top of the live game) but i expect them to initially go with the first one.

Cant see classic servers with dungeon finder. That's one of the things that vanilla server advocates hate from what I gather.

[Kazuchika]

2: The old vanilla game but with quality of life changes like class balance, achievements, btag and possibly dungeon finder.

This is a horrible idea and I hope to god they're not even considering this because it will kill it before they even flip the switch.

[Phlegethon]

If Blizzard is going to open official Vanilla servers, I expect they will feature a lot of vanity items that are currently exceedingly rare. I'm thinking primarily of the original epic class mounts that were retired in 1.4, but a lot of other things fall into this category, from the Zul'Gurub mounts to T3 and Naxx crafted gear, and perhaps even the Amani Battle Bear if legacy servers continue on to Burning Crusade.

Since I primarily play the game to collect stuff, I can't help but wonder... what sort of effect should we see from this on the Standard servers?

I'm sure many people will want to use the Classic servers to add legacy items to their Standard collections. It makes sense in a way. Since these items will be at least temporarily, if not permanently available on Vanilla servers, their value as keepsakes for people who used to play back in the day will be greatly diminished. Right now, your only chance of seeing a Green Kodo or an Ancient Frostsaber is to encounter a veteran player lucky enough to have kept one. With Classic servers, all you need to do is log there and you will potentially see them everywhere.

That being said, I don't think the people who lobbied for Classic would like their game to be modernized with mount and transmog tabs just for the sake of collectors, and many collectors might not enjoy feeling like they "have to" play Classic intensively to get something they want to use in Standard.

So I propose two potential solutions that would make everyone happy:

1. Simply reintroduce these mounts and transmogs to the Standard game, or change the means of acquisition from BMAH to actual gameplay. They can come from current content rather the old vendor or instance. They can even have new names, in order to preserve the integrity of the originals, simply add new mounts using those models. Since horses are receiving a graphic update in BFA, kodos already received one, and other mounts may get one too in time, the extra colors are particularly desirable.

2. Add hidden achievements on Classic servers that translate into rewards on Standard. For example, leveling a char to 60 will grant you a token in Standard WoW that you can exchange for one of the original epic mounts, killing KT on a Classic realms grants you a token you can exchange for a full T3 set in Standard, etc. This is more of a middle ground solution. There is no visible intrusion on Classic realms in the form of a Collector tab, and players still need to invest somewhat in their Classic characters to get the rewards, but a bit less than it would take to actually buy the mount or collect individual items.

What do you guys think? How would you like this handled?


P.S. To edgy Vanilla lovers who think Vanilla mounts and mogs should remain exclusive to Vanilla servers, don't be hypocrites. You wanted access to retired content in a way you could enjoy, and Blizzard listened to you. There is no reason why collectors shouldn't have the same expectations - only we don't want the gameplay, just the vanity items.

I don't think (want) any crossover between "classic" and current servers. If you want the vanity and "vintage" stuff, go play "classic".
It's over, done, past.

And no, I will not be on a vanilla server, I've done that, it was fine back then, but compared to now, it was a shitty game. (gl with a 1hr cooldown on your heartstone.)

[ReVnX]

Anything you get on the Classic server should NOT be passed on to Live.

Period

[Sting]

I highly doubt they're going to incentivize something they didn't even really want to do in the first place.

They've committed to it now though, I'll be the first to admit that if it fails spectacularly it'll be hilarious but I doubt they'll let it.

I fully expect some modern adaptations like a visual update and blizzard app integration, that leaves the door open for some more bonus features.

Wouldn't mind that to be honest, maybe I'm in the minority.

[Queen of Hamsters]

They'll perhaps make rewards account-wide to give players an incentive to try and keep playing the servers.

I don't imagine they'd allow mounts and pets earned beyond Classic to be used on those servers though.